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Migrating Trust (or Client) Transactions

NOTE:  In the UK, trust accounts are called client accounts. Throughout this article, any reference to a trust account also means a client account.

This article explains concepts for migrating your trust accounting transactions from a previous legal management practice system into Actionstep Practice Management.

CAUTION:  Actionstep strongly advises against using the trust import feature. While it is available in certain jurisdictions for users and allows for the import of all transactions, its complexity frequently leads to issues—even for those eligible to use it. Instead, it's recommended you transfer trust opening balances.

This process works like this:

  • Choose a date when you want to start recording trust activities within Practice Management.
  • On this selected date, stop recording trust transactions in your previous system.
  • Pull the figures for your trust account balances as at that date.
  • Create these balances as trust receipts in Actionstep.

For regulation purposes, you will need to keep a record of trust records for a number of years. This process will allow you to have a full picture of trust history across the two systems. Auditors do not mind that you have records across two platforms, as long as there is a very clear history in both systems, and the closing/opening balances between the two systems match as at a certain date.

TIP:  You may consider retaining one license for your previous system to access trust records for reference or audit purposes until you have met the required retention period for maintaining trust records.

 

Additional Resources:

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